A while back I was involved in a Facebook war with a very strong supporter of Bernie.
I tried unsuccessfully to communicate that when it came to the “Rich” and “Big Business”, the group that he strongly had an issue with, that I agreed with him. I called them “Corporatists.”
I used a different name, but it was the same enemy.
I think it is important to use clear terms for a group to make it easier to identify the underpinnings of the problem. In that way, we can arrive at solutions.
Conflating the Rich with Big Business and declaring them the enemy of the little guy does not really lend itself to what is going on. What “Rich” do you mean? How much do you have to make to be “Rich”? Is everyone that makes more than you “Rich”? And what is the problem with “Big Business” anyway?
What Rich?
As an example, on the Forbes 500 Bilionaires list for 2016, 221 or 44.2% that were on the list last year are off it now. 198 new people joined the list that were not on it the year before. I am only trying to point out that the group changes. Things happen in a dynamic world. So what Rich? This year’s list? Last year’s list? All of them? Does it matter?
How Rich?
The top 1% of income earners pay about 45% of all taxes. The top 20% pay about 85% of all taxes. The bottom 80% of income earners pay about 15% and the bottom 60% will pay about 2%. Approximately 45% of Americans pay 0 tax.
How much do have to earn to be in the top 1%? $450k. Top 20%? $112k. So if you make $45k and marry someone making $70k, combined are you now the rich? Now do you hate yourself?
My point is this: What rich are you mad at?
Does all Big Business suck and stick it to us?
If you are looking at your iPhone while you should be reading this ask yourself does Apple or Google suck? Apple’s market capitalization was about $495B and Google about $498B. Are they Rich? Too Rich?
For me, the problem is not about the “Rich” or “Big Business” but about the system that allows business to inbreed with the government by using lobbyists and money to get favorable treatment and government funds back into their own pockets at the same time the politicians get rich. Members of Congress make about $175k a year (top 8%), yet, they leave office millionaires.
And how does government earn its money? It doesn’t. It takes it from people who do earn it through taxes and gives it to others.
These corporatists are the real enemy. Von Mises would call what they do “Interventionalism”, a system that interferes with the free market system (which we can get into later) and spawns socialism.
The thing to remember is that governments have the power of Coercion and Control and combined with the corporatist system, it is the real enemy to all of us.
Common ground.